Four Golden Rules for a Great Logo

Your logo is the very foundation for your brand. And great logos reflect its soul. They tell a story about the lineage, the character, the culture of the company it represents. In the end, what it says can be the difference between whether the brand flies or falls flat.

Here are 4 things that you should keep in mind while getting your logo designed:

Follow the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid).
Simplicity does not mean boring. It gives power to your design. If you are not able to select between 2 equally good logos, pick the simpler one. It’s that easy! In the Fedex logo, the first thing that strikes you is its simplicity. But look again, and you will also see a forward pointing arrow. Spotted it yet?

Uniqueness pays.
The easiest way your logo can be one of its kind is by making it specific to its core truth – what is it offering and what are its ethos. Make the logo bring out the unique story that your brand wants to tell. In the logo of the dog shelter above, it not only clearly communicates the service, but also brings out the friendliness angle in a highly simple, elegant manner. If you are a law firm, you’d like to connote trust. If you are a play school, you’d like to connote the joys of childhood. If you are an IT company, you could be about confidence, or expertise. The more unique your logo is, the more it will stick in your audience’s mind. Please avoid the temptation of using sites like fiverr which that generate logos as per existing templates and can easily get lost in the crowd.

Who is your target audience?
This is THE big question that you need to answer. If you are redesigning the logo for your company, it is possible that your target audience is not your customers, your vendors, your prospective partners, but your very own employees! Think about it before you brief your designer. The Methodex logo is not just a clever interpretation of the letter M, it also became the symbol for the resurgence of the company by subtly telling the employees – “we are ready to soar”.

Make sure it is scalable.
Your logo is going to do a lot of heavy lifting for your brand, especially if you are a Business to Business company. It has to look equally good on your business card as well as a big hoarding. Even though the logo of this quaint lodge in the himalayas looks busy, it is not only unique to its location, but also looks equally good when scaled down.

Yes, one of the most effective ways to tell your customers that you are serious about your business is your logo. Make sure it speaks volumes about you.